Centre for Gender Studies - "Work in Progress" talks

This event will offer short introductions to the research of scholars working on issues of gender across the RUG and will be followed by Q&A and discussion. We look forward to seeing you there!

Speakers:

Kristen McGee (Arts, Culture and Media)
“Gendered Interventions in European Jazz Festival Programs: Keychange, Curiosity and Alternative Star Networks”

This presentation introduces research on four European jazz festivals, (North Sea, Montreux, Berlin Jazz Fest and Katowice JazzArt Fest) in relation to festival programs examined over four decades. Artists careers whose performances are reflective of a Transatlantic network are examined in relation to gendered ideologies within jazz as they contribute to patterns of stardom consecrated through durable performance circuits.

Theila Smith ( Institute for Science Education and Communication )
“ Exploring the space: Border Crossing, Resilience and Engagement in Saturday Science Programme ”

Findings from this study offer arguments for young children sustained engagement in science in out-of-school contexts, especially for groups outside the dominant science narrative. Findings show that there are hidden transacts that limit the ways in which young children, especially those from underrepresented groups navigate the out-of-school settings that offer science enrichment. These implicit barriers continued to have a sustained impact on young children, especially those from underrepresented groups in out-of-school science engagement.

Jeanette den Toonder (European Languages & Cultures)
“ Comparing Counter-Narratives: Iranian Women's Writing in Europe ”

My research project analyses counter-narratives written by Iranian women of the diaspora in Europe that defy stereotypical Western images portraying them as a silenced and homogenous group, subject to violence and (sexual) exploitation. By adopting a transnational and comparative perspective, the project examines eight life narratives from four different language areas, focusing on the female protagonists’ construction of self and their exploration of female collective experience. Its aim is to exemplify the empowering effects of the women’s stories and the ways in which they create new images of migrant womanhood.

Vera Veldhuizen ( European Languages and Cultures )
“ Representing Consent in Dutch YA Literature" ”

In this paper I use a cognitive narratological approach to analyse how De Lovebus, a Dutch YA book, discusses and represents the issue of consent from and for an adolescent perspective. I focus on how the book uses multiple narration, Theory of Mind, experience and empathy techniques to represent adolescent understandings of consent and another's intents, beliefs, emotions and desires, foregrounding the complexity of consent dialogues for people with limited emotional and sexual understanding and experience.

Maarten Zwiers ( History & American Studies )
“ Toxic Masculinity in the Jim Crow South ”

How does gender function in white supremacist politics? Through the concept of toxic masculinity I explore the gendered nature of Jim Crow segregation, the racist system that existed in the U.S. South from the 1890s until the 1960s.